Alex Berezow’s Articles in USA Today

When the coronavirus pandemic slows and allows us to catch a breath — both literally and figuratively — there will be an international reckoning that likely will end with China bearing the brunt of the blame. In order to force China to implement adequate safety standards, we should stop importing essential items, especially food, medicine and medical equipment, until the country proves that it can be a responsible member of the global community.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, democratic governments across the world have implemented unprecedented peacetime lockdowns. One California city is even usingnight vision equipped drones — made in China, ironically — to enforce it. A city in Washington encourages citizens to snitch on those who violate the “stay home” order.

Let’s pause a moment to consider the serious ramifications of what we are doing.

An attempt to reopen the Yucca Mountain facility in Nevada, where it was built to store nuclear waste, was recently shot down in Congress. The state’s refusal to become the nation’s central repository for nuclear waste means that we are forced to store it at 80 sites across 35 states — an impractical, expensive and less safe solution. It’s time to tempt Nevadans with an outside-the-box approach: Let’s pay them.

The United States is being hit by two large foodborne illness outbreaks — first, the E. coli outbreak in romaine lettuce, and now a salmonella outbreak in beef that has sickened more than 200 people. These high-profile cases underscore the inadequacy of the safety measures meant to protect our food supply. If we are serious about addressing this issue, we must implement food irradiation.

America’s new obsession with detecting and correcting fake news is good for democracy. The future of our republic depends on a properly informed electorate.

Likewise, our health depends on us being properly informed about science. Therefore, we should extend the war on fake news to banish unscientific buzzwords and health fads. Here are 10 from my new book, Little Black Book of Junk Science.

Imagine what a typical American might do for breakfast: Fry a few slices of bacon, slather Nutella on a piece of toast, and pour a hot cup of coffee while checking e-mail on a smartphone. If we are to believe everything we read in the news, then that rather common daily ritual could cause you to die from cancer.

A jury in St. Louis awarded a woman over $70 million last month because her lawyers convinced a jury that talcum (baby) powder caused her ovarian cancer. This is the third jackpot verdict issued by a jury in that city against Johnson & Johnson. Since sharks are smelling blood in the water, surely more lawsuits will follow.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Dr. Priscilla Chan, have announced a 10-year, $3-billion initiative to “cure, prevent or manage all disease within our children’s lifetime.” Hopefully, one of the conditions they will try to cure is the couple’s sizable ego.

It is no secret that the U.S. spends more money per K-12 pupil than most other countries, yet American students consistently rank in the middle of the pack against their peers. In the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment, measured against their counterparts in 34 developed nations, U.S. students ranked 27th in mathematics and 20th in science.

If nanny state critics want a fine example of regulation gone wild, they should look to the World Health Organization. The group’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has given us a reason to fire up our espresso machines by declaring that coffee does not cause cancer. But don’t celebrate too hard. The IARC also says that any very hot drink probably causes cancer, including hot water.

Science is one of America’s most important strategic resources. With just 5% of earth’s population, we produce over 30% of the world’s science and lead the world in Nobel prizes. Now that Donald Trump has a realistic chance of becoming the 45th president of the United States, it’s time to ask: What would that mean for American research?

The Zika virus, which is spreading like wildfire throughout the Americas and is linked to a head-shrinking birth defect called microcephaly, is just the latest in a long list of mosquito-transmitted diseases that make the insects the world’s deadliest animal. It is time to launch a global initiative to eradicate them.

The Ebola situation is testing the world’s best infectious disease team, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), at its ability to perform crisis management. While the immediate threat in the United States appears to be receding, it is far from clear that we’re up to facing a stronger test.

President Obama is urging the nation to adopt a $10.10 minimum wage. Most Americans agree that it is time for a pay increase. Before we rush into this, however, we ought to consider overhauling the entire minimum-wage law because it is fundamentally broken in two major ways.

The apparent heroin overdose death of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who first used drugs decades ago, is a reminder of just how difficult it is to get a handle on drug abuse and the youth culture that enables it. One reason for the surge in heroin use over the past five years is a crackdown on the abuse of prescription opiate painkillers. Addicts might simply be substituting one drug for a related one.

The latest international exams — which show that students from the U.S. rank 21st and 26th in science and math, respectively — once again confirm a pattern that emerged in 1964 with the First International Mathematics Study: Compared with their counterparts abroad, American kids are decidedly mediocre.

Late last month, the National Science Foundation decided to stop funding new political science grants through the end of 2013. Predictably, political scientists are outraged. But so are hard science researchers.

Angelina Jolie courageously announced Tuesday that she underwent a preventative double mastectomy after genetic testing showed she had a high probability of developing breast and ovarian cancer, which she followed up with reconstructive surgery of her breasts. Not only does this highlight the promise of medical research and biotechnology, undoubtedly, Jolie’s willingness to publicize her decision will encourage other women who find themselves in similar circumstances.

In January, David Attenborough, an internationally renowned host of nature documentaries, revealed how disconnected he is from nature. Mankind, he recently warned, is a “plague on the earth.” He said, “Either we limit our population growth or the natural world will do it for us.” Nobody told him that world population growth is already slowing in nearly every part of the world. In many countries, demographers worry more about a shrinking population than an exploding one.

A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences got mainstream news media attention because it revealed that of the 2,047 scientific papers that had been retracted over the past seven decades, 67% were because of misconduct, such as inventing results or plagiarism. Admittedly, that sounds terrible. Does science have an honesty problem? Not really.
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In our state of political gridlock, the scientific community fears the impact of the looming federal budget cuts known as “sequestration.” But there is something else they should be fearful of: the redefining of science itself.

A recent air leak from a laboratory at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta is a very serious security breach that has the potential to harm both employees and the public. These labs study dangerous pathogens, such as influenza, tuberculosis and rabies.

But fear not, Americans: Congress has assembled a team mostly of lawyers to solve this leak problem…

Pop quiz. What year was this written? “Our once unchallenged pre-eminence in commerce, industry, science and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world. … The educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity.”

What is it about Ron Paul that so many people find intellectually appealing? Perhaps it is his frankness and candor, a rare trait in politicians. But I think it goes far beyond that. Paul — and libertarian philosophy in general — tackles government policy the same way a researcher tackles an experiment.

One thing upon which most Republicans, Democrats and independents seem to agree is that America’s political system is dysfunctional. This became crystal clear recently when the world watched, aghast, as the U.S. bickered over how to pay its bills. Such immaturity from our leaders in Washington is at least partially responsible for the Standard & Poor’s downgrade of our credit rating.

With millions of Americans heading to the polls today, and the presidential election just a year away, it is time to consider reforms that could help change two destructive features of American politics: partisan gridlock and the never-ending election cycle, both of which feed upon the other.

The notion that Republicans are uniquely anti-science is an oft-repeated theme in American political discourse. Every election cycle, Democrats salivate over opportunities to indicate how scientifically illiterate they believe Republicans to be. And all too often, the news media happily play along without pausing to analyze whether it is actually true.

When I received my jury summons in the mail, I had the same reaction most Americans must: “No! Why me, and why now?” I resolved to do whatever it took to get out of this legally mandated fiasco as soon as possible.

Sour disposition in tow, I reported for duty at the courthouse weeks later. It was immediately obvious I had entered a foreign country; an actual scientist in a jury box was about as welcome as a Yankees fan at Fenway Park.